Pharmacist says Advanced Care Health Mart will focus on known its patients

Mark Bugnaski / GazetteArun Tandon, center, talks with a customer at his new pharmacy, Advanced Care Health Mart, at Oakland and Centre in Portage.

PORTAGE — Customers who stop in to buy medicine at the Advanced Care Health Mart Pharmacy in Portage generally don’t see the exit before they get a few health tips from the store’s owner, Arun Tandon.

“Any patient who walks in here doesn’t leave until I talk to them,” said Tandon, who specializes in asthma and diabetes.

At a time when it seems most small, independent pharmacies are closing in the wake of competition with large national chains, Tandon opened Advanced Care at 7916 Oakland Drive in the Centre Square Plaza on Nov. 1. He had worked as a pharmacist for Meijer Inc. for 21 years.

The 46-year-old said he wants to try to get to know and understand all of his patients so that he can provide the best possible service and offer tips on how they can improve their health.

“I want to promote health and well being instead of just dispensing medication,” he said.Tandon began working in the pharmacy in the Meijer store at 5121 S. Westnedge Ave., in 1989 and in 2000 helped open the pharmacy in the Meijer store at 8850 Shaver Road.He said his job at Meijer became too hectic for him to provide the type of personal service he thinks his patients wanted. So, he made Oct. 31 his last day there.

“My passion is to talk to my patients, and we were getting so busy (at Meijer) that I could no longer do that,” Tandon said, adding that his new pharmacy is attracting many of the customers he had at Meijer.

Although Advanced Care is an independent pharmacy, Tandon said he is not afraid of competition from big pharmacy chains like Walgreens and Rite-Aid.

Mark Bugnaski / GazetteA well know pharmacist in the area for many years, Arun Tandon, right, says he wants to create more personal service for his customers. He is shown talking to customer Robert Boerema inside Tandon's new pharmacy, Advanced Care Health Mart.

“If that was the case, I never would have opened (Advanced Care),” Tandon said. “Advanced Care occupies part of a retail space that previously housed a rug store. Tandon said that rug store closed about three years ago, and the vacant space was then divided into two retail sections. His pharmacy is in the 1,560-square-foot northern section, and the southern space still is vacant.

Tandon’s remodeling projects included painting the interior, installing carpet, and building a front counter. He talks with his patients in a corner at the front of the pharmacy that has five chairs. A quote from poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The first wealth is health,” is written above the pharmacy’s front counter.

“I wanted to create an environment where I could really make a difference in each and every patient’s life,” Tandon said.

“We are running after money for half of our lives at the expense of our health and then we use all that money to gain back our health,” said Tandon, who leases his space from Oakland Group One LLC of Portage.

Tandon said that if his patients can’t afford the medicine they need, he will also try to get what they need for free from its manufacturer. If that fails, he said that he will sell the medicine to the patients at cost. Tandon also delivers medicine to his customers for free.

FACT SHEET

What: Advanced Care Health Mart Pharmacy, opened Nov. 1.

Where: 7916 Oakland Drive in the Centre Square Plaza in Portage

Philosophy: “I look at a patient as a whole,” says owner and pharmacist Arun Tandon. “Some people call it holistic medicine. I call it a holistic way of life.”

Employs: Three people with plans to hire another as a part-time pharmacy technician and delivery position.

Specialties: Tandon said he plans to sell about 50 types of herbal dietary supplements.For more information:

Hours: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays. Patients can get after-hours service by calling the pharmacy at 269-324-1100.

Other things to know: Tandon and his sister, Renu Sharma, teach a class that includes yoga, meditation, and ancient yogic breathing techniques called pranayama. The free class, called Power of Breath, is held from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. each Wednesday in a house that was converted into a meditation hall at 202 Boston Ave. in Portage.